KABUL, FEBRUARY 26, 2012—Following violent protests over the reported burning of Korans at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has received 50 people at its surgical hospital in Kunduz Province in northern Afghanistan. Many patients had suffered gunshot wounds.

Protests have been raging across Afghanistan since the Koran burnings were first reported a week ago. Demonstrations yesterday turned violent in Kunduz as protesters tried to storm the UN compound there.

“It all happened very quickly,” said Silvia Dallatomasina, MSF’s medical coordinator in Kunduz. “We saw almost 30 patients over the course of an hour when the violence first started, most of them in critical condition and needing immediate care.”

Of the 50 people who arrived at the MSF trauma hospital, 39 were admitted, the majority of whom were suffering from gunshot wounds. Three patients died. The remaining patients have been stabilized and treated or referred to the regional hospital in Kunduz. MSF surgical teams performed 14 operations throughout the day and into the night, including vascular surgical procedures and the treatment of fractures due to gunshots.

MSF has been running the surgical hospital in Kunduz since August, 2011, providing urgent surgical care and follow-up treatment for people wounded in conflict and for those suffering from life-threatening injuries. Since its opening, hundreds of people have been treated in the hospital, the only specialized surgical hospital of its kind in northern Afghanistan.